SECOND BIENNIAL STATEMENT 153 



Here are the curses that rest upon American game: 



1. The general absence of ethics in hunting. 



2. The 75-per-cent-of-hunter sentiment that it is neces- 

 sarily and ethically right to kill "all the game that the law 

 allows," regardless of its scarcity, or its impending local 

 extinction. 



3. The annual salving of 3,000,000 consciences with 

 hunting licenses costing the princely sum of $1 each. 



4. Reckless disregard for the extermination of species. 



5. The actual extermination of game "according to law." 



6. The totally false idea that saving game today in order 

 to kill it tomorrow is "game protection," or "conservation." 



7. The indifference of hunters to the balance of game 

 increase and decrease which is indispensable to the main- 

 tenance of a continuous supply. 



8. The unwillingness of 75 per cent of the hunters of 

 today to make serious sacrifices that are absolutely neces- 

 sary to maintain this continuous supply. 



9. The prevalence of greed and selfishness in hunting, 

 which wants to kill the full legal limit, if it be possible. 



10. The impatience of law when it runs counter to 

 desire. 



There are, fortunately, many men and boys who will do 

 right by wild life when their duty becomes clear. There 

 are men to whom six birds are as sufficient as sixty, and 

 who stop without reference to the legal limit. There are 

 three times as many more who want what they want, when 

 they want it, who kill to the limit if they can, and who yield 

 no hunting privilege save under compulsion. The spring- 

 shooters of Missouri serve to point a moral but their doings 

 would come a thousand miles short of adorning a tale. Be- 

 cause they cannot kill in the autumn months and during 

 December and January as many ducks and geese as they 

 would like to kill, they demand of the national government 



